EXCLUSIVE: Michael Eisner’s The Tornante Company will finance and produce the development of a feature film based on Garbage Pail Kids, the trading card line published by Topps. Eisner bought the card company in 2007 and this is his first feature spinoff project. Toby Ascher is producing. PES (that is what he goes by) will direct the film, which will be scripted by Michael Vukadinovich, who most recently set his Black List script The Three Misfortunes Of Geppetto at Fox and Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps. PES, an award winning creator of shorts, developed the story with Vukadinovich. His latest film is Fresh Guacamole, and his other shorts include Roof Sex and Western Spaghetti. All of them have been wildly popular viral videos.

Hatched in 1985, the Garbage Pail Kids launched as an irreverent parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids (Topps eventually settled a lawsuit brought by Cabbage Patch-maker Coleco). Hatched by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman, the cards became wildly popular enough that they were banned by many schools. There was also a feature done in 1987. ICM repped PES and Vukadinovich. Here is PES’s most recent short film:

46 Comments

Um • on Mar 12, 2012 11:10 am

Wait wait wait. There was a FEATURE FILM adaptation of this in the 80s. Live action. It was a DISASTER, considered one of the worst films of all time. Look it up. Aint It Cool News recently did a piece on it. Find the trailer on YOUTUBE. This is crazy.

Big Kid • on Mar 12, 2012 11:10 am

the 1987 movie wasn’t animated, it was a glorious live action muscial!! worth you tubing just for the cringe / creepy factor!

Goliath • on Mar 12, 2012 11:12 am

Gee Davey! That looks awfully… what’s the word? Dated?

pAThEALY • on Mar 12, 2012 11:12 am

it was actually a LIVE action feature film in 1987. and it was terrible.

Randal • on Mar 12, 2012 11:15 am

1987 animated feature? That musical monstrosity was live, baby!

Nerd • on Mar 12, 2012 11:16 am

Does this mean the box of gpk cards from 85-88 my parents found in storage ladt week shouldn’t have been thrown out?

BadHatHarry • on Mar 12, 2012 11:18 am

Uhm, the 1987 feature, starring Anthoney Newley (!), was not animated either literally or metaphorically. It’s one of the most excruciating experiences I’ve ever had in a movie theater. The idea that anyone is revisiting this truly boggles the mind.

80s Kid • on Mar 12, 2012 11:18 am

What? No mention of the 1987 live-action movie?

the 80s—so bad they were good • on Mar 12, 2012 11:20 am

CORRECTION:

Although there was an animated TV SHOW of the Kids in 1987, there was also a live-action movie of the brand. IMDB corroborates this. I remember seeing it, too, as I was a collector of the cards in my tweens and was excited to see the movie with friends. THE MOVIE WAS AWFUL! Even as a kid, I was as grossed out by the horrible prosthetics of the characters, as I was by the concept. My memory is even bringing back the chorus of the lame song they sung at various parts of the movie..Ugh!

I wish the producers and director much luck with this franchise.

Anonymous • on Mar 17, 2012 9:39 pm

there were multiple songs through out the movie, none repeated. if you were grossed out by the prosthetics of the movie then you are not really a fan of the cards. the trading cards displayed much more graphic and disturbing images than that of windy winston and messy tessy or even nat nerd who were in the film.

c'mon • on Mar 12, 2012 11:22 am

No mention of Toby Ascher in this piece? He deserves all the credit for making this happen.

Big Kid • on Mar 12, 2012 11:25 am

Even if you delete my comments, it doesn’t change the fact that the 1987 movie was a live action musical and not animated. Good job, moderator!

Big Kid • on Mar 12, 2012 11:25 am

oh, there the comment is. LOL sorry moderator :)

halloween • on Mar 12, 2012 11:27 am

80s movie is so bad its good, bring back tangerine. and sweat shop GPK

Anon • on Mar 12, 2012 11:35 am

This is really stupid. But then again, stupid sometimes makes money.

Really • on Mar 12, 2012 11:40 am

Guys come on. You crush companies when remakes of good movies are announced and now you are killing one for remaking a terrible movie. This is exactly what we should want to see, a remake of a terrible movie with a cool fresh vision. Cant wait!

LPB • on Mar 12, 2012 12:08 pm

Yeah.

Plus, it’s not an adaptation of a board game, so they shuld get a lot of credit for that, too. Right?

Ice Nerd • on Mar 12, 2012 11:42 am

Eisner — the mark of quality.

Usherette • on Mar 12, 2012 11:48 am

I am optioning Wacky Packages and Lik-m-Ade IMMEDIATELY!!!

Topps Trading Card guy • on Mar 12, 2012 11:48 am

The Garbage Pail Kids were a parody of the Cabbage Patch Kids doll line. How many kids today know what either of those properties are?

By the time the 80’s film was made the joke was already old and played out, and the film was poorly made on top of that.

Whatever. I hope they spend 300 million making this.

J.R. • on Mar 12, 2012 11:56 am

OHMYFINGGOD….

They’re really doing this movie… wrap it up folks. The Mayans got it right. All Gods, including those long dead and forgotten, will band together to smite us all for this insult. Thanks Eisner, didn’t learn your lesson the first time, and now we all gotta pay.

Peter • on Mar 12, 2012 12:03 pm

Not to mention GEPETTO was pure bunk, even if it was on the Blacklist.

Larry • on Mar 12, 2012 12:05 pm

Wow. A few thoughts: Eisner’s track record with Tornante has been terrible (Glenn Martin DDS, Back On Topps, etc.). The Garbage Pail Kids Movie in 1986 was, as other commenters have said, one of the worst movies of all time. THAT SAID, Pes is a visionary director, and Michael Vukadinovich seems to have real talent given his Black List script… this could be a train wreck or a brilliant surprise. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Anonymous • on Mar 12, 2012 12:13 pm

Cute short.

Zach • on Mar 12, 2012 12:20 pm

This is pretty unbelievable. There is no audience for this movie. I remember the trading cards vividly as I was one of those kids who bought, traded, swindled my way to every card I could get my hands on. But that soon died out, and I don’t think anyone outside of that small bracket of now 30 some year olds truly remembers what these are.

There are some things that aren’t coming back. GPK is one of those.

Anonymous • on Mar 12, 2012 12:52 pm

Make it a horror film starring Mickey Rourke and Nick Nolte and you can count me in!

B Y • on Mar 12, 2012 1:42 pm

I don’t see how this gets made. Too creepy for young children, too forgettable for the adults who grew up with it, too bizarre for mainstream audiences, too juvenile for indie audiences.